Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Calm and Strong

Yesterday I was given a unique opportunity: My yoga
instructor, Fran Gallo, invited me
to sketch during one of her classes. When I’m taking Fran’s class myself, I
have often thought that sketching the other students would be an interesting life
drawing exercise, so I was thrilled when Fran suggested it.

It seemed like the short-pose life drawing sessions I attend at Gage would have been good training for
sketching at yoga, and they were – to some extent. But the shortest pose the
models hold at life drawing is one minute. In Fran’s class, the students hold some
strenuous, challenging poses for a lot less than a minute – perhaps 30 seconds
or less. Yesterday’s class gave me a workout in speed sketching! I thought it might
help that I practice yoga myself: If I had to visually memorize a pose to
finish drawing it, my own body’s memory of the pose should remind me. That’s a
good theory, but in reality, it was no less challenging than if I didn’t
practice yoga!

In the past, I’ve used yoga as a metaphor for drawing. I’ll do it again: As I filled 13 pages
in my sketchbook during the 75-minute class, I needed the first few pages to
warm up and find my flow. Eventually I did, and the sketches came more fluidly,
just as the poses seemed to flow more easily for the students. After a while, I
got tired, and the sketches weren’t as good, but in exchange I had gained a
different kind of energy that comes from close observation and recording what I
observe. During the final shavasana, I rested along with the
students, feeling calm and strong.